Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - November 24, 1981, Winnipeg, Manitoba 6 Winnipeg free november 1981 Winnipeg free press Freedom of Trade Equality of civil rights Liberty of religion published six Days a week at 300 Carlton Winnipeg r3c 3c1 by Canadian newspapers company limited Telephone 9439331 Winnipeg free press 1872 Winnipeg Tribune 1890 Donald Nicol publisher John Dafoe editorial Page editor Murray Burt managing editor Rudy Redekop controller web Lwi or the March on Ottawa the weekend March on Ottawa to protest against High interest rates was an impressive demonstration of Organiza Tion by the Canadian labor Congress and the other bodies which helped sponsor the its most important result was to drive Home to politicians the fact that their economic policies Are causing real damage to real people All across the As those among the or More taking part in the protest made that damage is being caused in a number of different High interest rates Are creating a crisis for some families faced with vastly increased Mort Plant closings Are throwing thousands out of inflation has left the average Canadian worker worse off in real terms than he was five years the aim of the protest was to give a voice to Ordinary canadians those who had been Hurt directly and those who feared they would be they spelled out their concerns with reason and with by its the Ottawa rally was More successful in spelling out the problems than in offering when hundreds of thousands of people suddenly feel their Standard of living is severely they know that something has gone wrong with the they know that what has gone wrong at least in the fault of those who were elected on the Promise of skilful economic they expect those people in charge to do something to Correct the damage they have the most popular cure for High interest rates put Forward at the rally was simply to lower some serious economists would agree with that simple solution but that cure could Well be worse than the if Canadian rates fall far below those in the United there will be an outflow of capital from the value of the Dollar will drop and As a will get with the new budget in place along with a More realistic National Energy there May be More room to pursue a policy on interest rates that is More Independent of that in the United but there Are Clear limits to Canadas practical room for and whatever happens in the double digit inflation is Likely to keep interest rates the Only real solution is to adopt gradualist policies which will slow the rate of inflation without plunging the country into a serious striking that balance at the moment is a delicate matter and there is no reason to be certain that finance minister Allan Maceachen last budget will do the if the recession which now appears to be looming is More than the Sharp one that government economists fondly Hope then the finance minister will have to revise his budget plans in the the weekend demonstration should remind him that the Price of government inaction or miscalculation is paid by vast numbers of Ordinary a great Many of it is Are running out of too Many of them Are running out of Indian child welfare Indian Reserve children in Manitoba do not enjoy the protections against neglect and abuse which provincial Law and child Protection agencies extend to other since the Federal parliament the sole Power to pass Laws relating to it is not entirely Clear How far provincial child welfare Laws Are applicable on Indian but it is certain that Reserve communities Are hostile to intervention by White social child welfare has come to mean snatching away Indian children for placement in institutions or for knowing they Are the child welfare authorities intervene Only in what they regard As life Eddeath the four nations confederacy earlier this year negotiated with the Federal and provincial governments an agreement by which Indian bands or tribal councils could set up their own child welfare these India run agencies would exercise for Reserve families the Powers that the provincial director of child welfare exercises of Reserve and would be financed by Federal since the Northern Manitoba bands have rejected the leadership of the four nations confederacy More the child welfare agreement which it the objection stated by chief Russell tobacco of the Moose Lake band is that the agreement recognizes a provincial Power to make Laws governing Indian undermining the Contention that indians on reserves owe no obedience to provincial Indian child care agencies operating under the agreement would not be wholly free to establish their own programs and policies because their Powers and duties would be those which the province has Given to its director of child the Northern chiefs objections should not be lightly Given Ottawa record in Indian Educa Tion and social one can easily imagine the Federal government underfunding Indian child welfare agencies and inviting them to approach the province about expanded indians have been put through that routine often enough to see it coming a Long Way but in the final the proposed agreement must be judged by whether or not it improves the present which it surely it would permit the provision of child welfare services where none Are now provided and where they Are it would permit the control of those services by band councils and tribal councils in All respects except the legislative it would create a Range of possibilities for helping abused or neglected children other than the present Choice Between leaving them with unsuitable parents or else apprehending them and taking them away from their Home the two governments should make an honest Effort to meet the Northern chiefs objections in the Hope of ensuring that ban managed child care will be provided on Northern reserves but at the end of the child care is provided on Southern reserves and not in the the Northern chiefs will have to explain to their band Mem Bers How that makes them better Wev Pony i cancel that route our political policemen improving voting hours the suggestion that voting hours in Canada be restructured so that polls close simultaneously across the country has much to recommend if a system can be worked out that will for practical disenfranchise voters in British the objective of simultaneous voting hours should be the House of commons privileges and elections commit tee has recommended simultaneous hours that would see voters in British Columbia begin casting ballots As Early As in the while those in Newfoundland would have to wait until noon for polls to the suggestion is that polls would closest local and those in Newfoundland would not close until simultaneous voting hours would not Likely change the outcome of but would ease the bitter feelings often experienced in Western Canada when the first news about election made Public after local polls often reveals that governments have been elected before a single Western vote is Canada does not allow the practice of broadcasting Eastern results while Western polls Are still however this Law could become rather difficult to As More stations carry Canadian election results and As satellite coverage becomes More available through private a owned the biggest danger in the suggestion is that voters where polls close Early in the Day May suffer in that voting is normally an evening even Laws that permit time off from employment for the purposes of voting May not persuade people who would usually vote after their evening meal to take advantage of the time available earlier in the having polls open and close on local time is a Holdover from the Days before instant there is also the Canadian aversion to having results in one time zone made Public in another while voting is still in provided that adequate provision can be made to make sure that no one who wants to vote has obstacles placed in the Way of simultaneous hours appears to be a practical Way out of the present by Wilson special to the free press Ottawa minister Pierre Trudeau once insisted that the govern ment of the Day should not know what the Security service does or How it does it and that if things go wrong the problem should be left to the courts or a Royal a Royal commission received irrefutable proof that one head of the John had warned the prime minister and key members of his Cabinet that the ramp had been doing illegal things for 20 years and in the end would be Little impression starness warning made Little impression on the Cabinet committees which heard it two of them brushed it aside and there was never any follow years although 17 men were present at one of those committee none was Able even to re member the which suggests that there was nothing about it that caused any of them Surprise and that they took it for granted that such things the proof that Starnes actually did deliver his warning lies in two sets of Handwritten notes made at the time by officers of the privy Council office who were present As the official note these pieces of which go so far to cast Light on the governments attitude towards these purity service ten years did not seem to make a major impression on the Royal Justice David Mcdonald and his colleagues took note of the Handwritten notes but any fair minded Reader of their report is Likely to feel that the ramp got a disproportionate share of the blame for the things that went wrong and that the which should have had the service under better came off very lightly now the court testimony of two for Mer Heads of the Starnes and his predecessor William is casting More Light on the relationship Between the Security Branch of the ramp and the governments of the late Lester Pearson and of tru More interventionist their testimony reveals a much More interventionist attitude towards the service than Trudeau suggested the Day he put Forward what became known As his doctrine of Kelly has said that Marc now Energy minister but then an aide to told him the service should spy on the government of Quebec As it would on a foreign Starnes has related his refusal to go along with a solicitor generals propos Al that the service should actively cooperate with a group Lalonde had set up later on to fight the parti quebecois and separatism his threat to resign rather than let the service be used politically apparently got As far As prime minister who supported that is some of the background against which the Cabinet committee ignored the Starnes warnings of illegalities and also of the present prime ministers later doctrine of during the Peak of the constitutional Trudeau was forced to admit that he had been less than candid and the same conclusion might be drawn about some of his statements during the ramp pretty Pearson once remarked to me during a conversation about the Security problem that members of the ser vice had to do some pretty murky things so it has never seemed to me very Likely that he would have sub scribed to the doctrine of his words suggested an adequate knowledge of what the service does and How it does the most important aspect of the entire ramp controversy has never been whether or not some members of the service did things they clearly should not have the real Issue has always been whether government maintained the proper degree of super vision Over their activities and whether the vital principle of ministerial responsibility was engaged in this vexing aspect of National the Royal commission did not see the issues that Way but such a vital principle of government is involved that it is reason Able to argue that Justice Mcdon Ald and his colleagues missed the real Starnes and Kelly Are helping to make it the other Side in reply to Meyer brownstones let brutal free no vember 4 concerning South african troops in Angola and i Feelly is Only being viewed from one South Africa has been attacked from All sides by the main thing that the government there is doing is to wipe out the terrorists staging Camps before they get a Chance to Consoli Oxnam seems to think that South Africa has no right to defend during the rhodesian their troops regularly did hot Pursuit missions into Mozambique and Zambia and were successful in curtailing terrorist Active the terrorists Are supported by the citizens russians and must be wiped it is obvious even to Oxnam that they choose to ignore the butchering done to local Blacks by during the recent operation South Africa captured vast amounts of russian equipment and a russian Mili tary it is obvious that rus Sia Aims to control All of Oxnam fails to mention the russian invasion of due to Canadas Selling of Grain to afghan tribesmen will be killed by welled russian Brownstone seems to be under the impression if you Are Black and a then you Are but if you Are and prepared to defend your then you Are All South Africa is the Only country prepared to take on the communists and beat Geoff Martin Winnipeg letters the Winnipeg free press welcomes letters from writers must give their name and names will be used and letters Are subject to Equality african troops Namibia As i was driving Down Arlington i witnessed an incident which left me there was a Large dog tied to the bus Stop Bench near the Corner of Portage Avenue and Arlington a gentleman approached the Stop and immediately the dog bared its Teeth and began Barking and lunging at the besides being quite was carrying a White the dogs Lead was Long enough wherever the Man the dog was almost in reach of it was apparent that the Man was becoming As the dog continued snapping and lunging at i was in the far Lane of traffic by the time i was Able to pull Over to the a number of people had walked past the Man ignoring his the passenger in my car was finally Able to jump out to help the Man just As the dogs owner came out of a nearby she Lead her dog away with out a word of i think it is wonderful that a sight or any disabled is Able to negotiate the Why cant we offer them our in Stead of our apathy Johnstons Winnipeg in october i attended a world con Gress of women in to which some women came from 132 United nations representatives participated in the which was convened by the women International democratic women from All social strata with a great variety of religious and philosophical views discussed the main topics of the Congress National Independence and much attention was Given to an important convention that the 34th session of the in general Assembly adopted in the document i am referring to is the convention on the elimination of All forms of discrimination against since its adoption it has been signed by 86 in member states and it has now come into Force because it has been ratified by the required number of the convention states clearly that Equality of women is a fundamental human and a Basic principle of what the position of our government is to this convention should be of major concern to particularly to every women organization in Canada interested in women equal while our government voted for the convention at the it has As yet not agreed to the 1980 amendments to the in world plan of which is part of the decade for women proclaimed by the Congress delegates agreed that the problems confronting women cannot be separated from the problems faced by society As a they also agreed that the most serious problem is the threat to peace the danger of nuclear it was stressed that the continuing arms race is draining away raw materials and Energy and pre venting the Aims of the women move ments from the Congress underlined the fact that the political and social Power of women is growing rapidly and is capable of developments in direction of protecting life on this planet by preventing and thus ensuring the eventual full Equality of women and Mary Kardash school trustee Winnipeg bring Back trains with so much talk of an Energy crisis and constantly rising fuel it seems ironic that the Federal govern ment should cutback via rail by 20 per the train is the one form of transport that lends itself readily to the use of Canadas most pollution free above infinite Energy source the technology and hardware Are and the government would do Well to seize the i fail to understand Why transport Jeanluc Pepin should re Duce the rail network in a country that relies so heavily on transport to bring together its sparse to the Many Small communities across Canada that will suffer under the rail transport is a service which does not necessarily have to make a and should be funded in the same manner As other Public the axe has and the eliminated trains May never run but while there is a Glimmer of Hope i urge All interested particularly the provincial transportation to do their utmost to help bring Back the Steve Hobson Winnipeg easy conversion Fred Cleverley column metric gets the Boot from angry free october 23 contains the if a firm has ordered the proper weighing equipment Well enough in Advance but has not received its new Scales that line encourages the false belief that conversion to metric weights Means costs to merchandisers and customers of huge sums because new Scales have to be any Mer chant who has a scale with a weights and measures sticker on showing it to be accurate in weighing pounds and need not replace the it is a simple and inexpensive operation to convert it to metric that is True whether it is a 150yearold beam scale or a modern one with digital i have an old postal scale at after Reading Cleverley column i decided to convert it to the drawing and printing of the new scale took me 22 it now reads 50 Gram increments just As accurately As it formerly read i am sure that in any High school in Manitoba a Good math a Good drafting student and a Good photography student could convert 90 per cent of the Scales in one Days the Cost would be far below the figure quoted for Ken Kennedy Winnipeg an injustice the free press on october 31 reported the formation of the diabetes foun Dation of you record that John the president of that feels that the Canad an diabetes association has not been Able to take the life and death aspects of diabetes Moorhouse has been a respected and articulate voice for better health care for diabetics in and indeed an officer of the association for Many surely he does As Well As an injustice to hold in such Low esteem the hard work and advocacy which he and others have expended in Awakening the Public to the realities of on behalf of those Many both medical and Volunteer and and for those Many who suffer the dreadful consequences of this let me assure you that the ramifications of diabetes Are regarded seriously there is a statement in the report attributed to the foundation Vic Epresi Ronald that Only about 30 per cent of the funds donated to the cd by Manitoban is spent in the this statement is totally without foundation and without refer ence to our audited published state which clearly reveal in of those funds generously Contri buted by approximately 60 per cent remained Here for the objectives of cd Manitoba less than 40 per cent was sent out of the province for research and maintenance of the National in although our figures Are not the results will be even More dramatic because of research funds was granted to Manitoban from the National Morse Silden treasurer Manitoba division Canadian diabetes association Winnipeg did you hear the news santas been Laid ;